November 13, 2024-Oakland, CA
In 2020, David Dologite joined Merritt as our Director of Acquisitions. His history in affordable housing made him an asset to the organization and over the last four years we have seen him build an Acquisitions team that is solutions-oriented, incredibly proficient, and works with partners to achieve the goal of building a stronger California through more affordable housing.
David began his education and career on the East Coast in the greater Boston Area, first attending Boston University before working at an affordable housing community development corporation. He began in community organizing before transitioning into affordable housing project management. His work for four years in Boston focused on low-moderate income neighborhoods with predominantly immigrant families, before heading to law school at the University of Michigan.
He started off as a corporate lawyer in Boston focused on middle market capital finance before returning to affordable housing with a move to San Francisco. His first job in the California affordable housing industry was with East Bay Asian and Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) as a Senior Project Manager, before becoming its Director of Real Estate Development.
David transitioned to a nonprofit that ultimately joined with Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) in San Francisco where he focused on portfolio acquisitions as well as mixed-income joint ventures.
He then took his passion for affordable housing to Seattle where he worked at a nonprofit public development authority as its Director of Real Estate where he oversaw the development of several award-winning mixed-use projects as well as the establishment of Seattle’s first EcoDistrict.
Returning to the Bay Area, David joined the California Housing Partnership as a financial consultant before working his way to a Technical Director. At CHP, he was a consultant for non-profit affordable housing developers and public housing authorities, becoming even more of a subject matter expert in affordable housing finance. He also did policy work at CHP, assisting in drafting proposed legislation when CHP was a lead sponsor on a bill at the state level. His work focused on making affordable housing finance work more efficiently and adding new financial resources for affordable housing.
In 2020, David joined Merritt after working with and knowing of Merritt for over a decade. When the job opportunity arose, he was interested in the work and culture of Merritt. He saw them as holding a unique role for California developers that cannot be met by national platforms.
While at Merritt, David has been part of Merritt’s strategic planning process and revamping Merritt’s mission, vision, and values. To him, the People-First value really stands out in the day-to-day of the work. David shared, “I appreciate the fact that our focus is on supporting the tenants and our orientation around investing and working with developers is focused on people.”
Merritt has built a small team of experts and David shared that “I’m proud of the fact that we have a very collaborative approach to the work. We consciously avoid putting ourselves in strict silos; we have a team approach to problem solving and everyone here is committed to that.”
Reflecting on the last 18 months, David feels he and the team at Merritt have been successfully navigating the recent challenges faced by the banking and financial services industry. David believes Merritt is well positioned to achieve our strategic goals of becoming a more high-impact state-wide organization.
Thank you for your work and dedication to the affordable housing industry, David. Merritt is grateful to have you on the team and we all look forward to many more years with you leading Acquisitions!
About Merritt Community Capital Corporation
Merritt Community Capital Corporation is a nonprofit dedicated to our mission to provide equity capital for affordable housing exclusively to California. We do this by partnering with mission-aligned affordable housing developers throughout the state to ensure the most critical communities are developed and maintained for low-income residents. Since 1989, Merritt has created and/or preserved 11,100 affordable homes, through investing over $1.5 billion in 26 separate funds, providing housing for over 30,000people.